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This one might only help me, but if it helps anyone else, I’ll be happy.

I had to edit the autostart file for two of our kiosks. 14 of them are running Pi 2 Model B, and so are using Wheezy. When we needed to add two more, the only M2Bs we could find were 3x MSRP so we just went with M3s. Unfortunately, they have an updated architecture and will only run Jessie. It’s fine in most applications, but I couldn’t use the same system image to set them up. Frustrating.

Typical Wheezy installations have autostart located at /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart (or LXDE-pi, depending on how your pi boots).

That location exists for Jessie as well, but it wasn’t performing how I wanted. This was months ago, so I don’t remember exactly why, but after an hour and a half of searching, I finally found the real autostart file.

I managed to lock myself out of changing my own email signatures in Outlook. As embarrassing as that is, it’s the context for my recent discovery. My DFIR friends might already be aware of this, but I just stumbled upon where Outlook keeps recent search queries.

I figured out the issue of our Raspbian kiosks not keeping time. It has to do with the Pi lacking any RTC, etc. So the first step was to change /etc/ntp.conf, to comment out the lines referencing the official debian servers and add a few of our DCs. This was necessary because these kiosks can’t connect to anything outside their VLAN.

I’ll start by saying that I’m genuinely excited about a future where I don’t have to concern myself with driving at all. To be able to walk to my car, get in, and know that I’ll end up at my destination within a reasonable time without any thought of weather is a truly bright future.

There are, however, some caveats. I absolutely do not plan on living somewhere that I’ll need a car by the time the technology is available at a price point I can afford. Long before then, I want to be back in Chicago, or New York, or London– places with actual robust public transit options.

You may have heard that a guy from Texas stumbled across the voter registration information of something like over 100,000,000 Americans. That’s an incredible number, and it’s hard to imagine how it wasn’t protected at all. That’s right, no login required; it was 100% public.

Reading about it, I learned that each state decides for themselves how much of their voter registration info is public, what it can be used for, etc. Indiana’s only caveat, according to this site, is that it can’t be commercially used. So, naturally, as a non-commercial entity, I wanted to find out more and possibly pour over the database.

I’m so frustrated with Virgin Mobile support. At the same time, I’m pleasantly surprised with Apple support. I’ve never had to deal with them directly, at least that I can remember.

I emailed Virgin with more-or-less the same question as last time. I re-worded it to reflect their current stock. I want a 6s, which they have in stock, but I decided to ask about a phone they are out of, the 6+.

I use Virgin Mobile. Not exactly proud of that fact, but I can have an iPhone and I only pay $30 per month for my service. Right now, I’m still using an iPhone 5, and I desperately want to upgrade to the 6s, but that price thing I just mentioned is in the way. I would rather buy the phone outright and pay very little monthly than, say, pay more monthly to lease the phone (or even rent it, in some cases).

Virgin apparently only buys something like 2 or 3 of each model of iPhone at a time. I’m assuming that, because every single one has been sold out since the day they went on sale. For a while there, they didn’t even have a page for iPhones and I figured they dropped them entirely (would definitely switch if that were the case).

Just yesterday, Rob Dyke uploaded a new video in his ‘Seriously Strange’ series, about unexplained events caught on camera. The first phenomena that he mentions are people who dress as clowns, and act… strangely, I guess. I admit, if I saw a masked person in the dark, I would be freaked out, but being a clown costume doesn’t make it any worse.

I’m trying to understand the fear of clowns. Clowns, specifically, because I think it’s silly. It’s something that kids used to claim to get attention, always followed by ‘I saw ‘It’ when I was young, and it scarred me for life.’